Annette Tamm - Artists - Anacortes Magazine - Art, Music, and Community

ART IN ANACORTES

Annette Tamm

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember and started winning prizes as a child in Brooklyn.  Although I was awarded a full art scholarship  to the prestigious School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, my practical side kicked in at that point – helped by my even more practical parents – and  I chose to become a chemist instead.  I continued my artwork throughout college and afterward, however, working in pastels, oils and other media, until about 35 years ago when I discovered glass.  Starting on my kitchen counter top, I began making Tiffany lamps and designing stained glass windows on commission, as I balanced a career, child raising, and husband(s).

Early retirement  allowed me to move to the West Coast near the great art glass suppliers of Bullseye, Uroboros, and Oceana, and the huge technical and artistic resources afforded

by the concentration of cutting (pun intended) edge glass artists in this area.  I set up my studio in Anacortes in 1993, took classes at Pratt in Seattle and at Bullseye Glass and Hot Glass Horizons in Portland, and drew on techniques I learned from workshops with Narcissus Quagliata, Dan Fenton, Peter McGrain, Jeremy Lepisto, Patty Gray, and Miriam Di Fiori.   I joined the Association of Stained Glass Lamp Artists in Gig Harbor in 1994, and my original lamp designs were displayed in their calendars for many years until my explorations led me away from lamps to fused, cast, and slumped glass art.

971523_639628749382582_1872838716_nMy current interests have led me in two very different directions and both of these warm-glass processes carry a broader meaning for me than their face value might indicate.  My floral fabrics are created at a low-enough temperatures that the resulting forms retain their textural identity: I liken this process to our “melting-pot” society wherein individuals attempt to retain their basic cultural identity and their rich, defining characteristics:  at higher temperatures these “fabrics” would imitate blown glass – beautiful but forever smooth to the touch.  My dimensional landscapes evolved over the past 10 years, starting with a class from Jeremy Lepisto and taking a quantum leap with two courses from Miriam Di Fiori.   These are comprised of multi-layers of glass sheets, frit and lamp-worked stringers fused into scenes of quiet serenity.  Because of their three-dimensional aspect, one feels drawn into these respites, away from over-communication and sensual overload.

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